Conventionally, a technique for displaying an image ahead of a vehicle, which is sensed using infrared rays, on a display provided in front of a driver's seat so as to assist driving of a driver in a maneuvering environment with poor visibility such as nighttime, heavy fog, or the like has been proposed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 60-231193, 6-247184, 10-230805, or the like.
The display apparatuses proposed by these prior arts can effectively assist driver's vision.
However, when the sensed infrared ray image includes a plurality of obstacles, it is difficult for the driver to recognize the distances between the individual obstacles and his or her vehicle. For this reason, it is hard to determine an obstacle which the driver must watch out most, and such display may often have adverse influences on the driving of the driver.
When a far obstacle is sensed, its image is displayed to have a small size in the infrared ray image. For this reason, the driver cannot recognize the obstacle displayed on the display screen at a glance, and such image cannot effectively assist driver's vision.
When the sensed infrared ray image is always displayed irrespective of the maneuvering environment, such display may have adverse influences on the driving of the driver.